Alex Salmond: Stop Commons thieves siphoning our oil

Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond branded Westminster MPs ‘thieves’ after he clashed with David Cameron over the future of the North Sea oil and gas industry.

The two leaders held rival cabinet meetings within a few miles of each other, when the prime minister visited Aberdeen to warn Scots that leaving Britain could harm the sector.

Mr Cameron backed a report from retired oil executive Sir Ian Wood, calling for measures to generate £200billion for the British economy by ensuring up to 4billion extra barrels are recovered from the North Sea over the next 20 years.

Mr Salmond, who convened his cabinet in nearby Portlethen, also welcomed Sir Ian’s views but said: ‘I’ve got some form in oil and gas as I was an energy economist before I fell among thieves, by which I mean the House of Commons and not the Scottish Parliament.’

However, his opposite number argued that an independent Scotland would find it harder to invest and deal with oil market volatility.

‘Because we are a top ten economy we can afford the tax allowances, the investment, the long-term structure that is necessary to make sure we recover as much from the North Sea as possible,’ Mr Cameron said.

‘I profoundly believe the United Kingdom will be better off if we all stay together.’

Downing Street has also claimed tax revenues from oil and gas in 2012/13 had fallen 40 per cent from the previous year to £4.7billion.

But Mr Salmond hit out at chancellor George Osborne for not pumping enough money into the industry.

He said: ‘We are seeing a massive investment in the North Sea at the present moment, it could be argued that much of this investment would’ve gone ahead in 2011/12 if it hadn’t been for George Osborne’s number of tax changes that caused uncertainty.’